Dry Chicken Run

Our chicken coop is small.  It’s only big enough for the girls to roost at night and to lay their eggs in the day. There also isn’t enough room to keep their food and water inside or for them to roam around together.  So, as we approached winter weather I needed to find a way to keep their run dry and snow free not only so that they would venture out in the event of blizzardy winter weather but also to keep their food dry.

I thought about green house plastic but this was too expensive and potentially difficult to install without ripping it.  I also considered  screwing boards onto the run to extend their coop just for the winter, but I wanted them to have fresh air and sunlight.  I needed something cheap, easy to install and take down in the spring, and something that would still allow sunlight and air flow.  Mostly, I wanted to be prepared for something like the 1 ft of snow we got last year.  My neighbor had to dig a path for her chickens so they would come out of their coop!

So, I bought 6 cheap clear shower curtains.  I zip tied them to the top and Jamie nailed scrap wood to keep the bottoms from blowing around.  There is still plenty of air flow and so far the curtains keep the driving rain out so the girls have plenty of dry space to be outside.  Plus, the clear plastic warms the run when the sun is out.  I’m really happy with how it is working out!  I’ll let you know how it works when it finally snows!

North side

Bike Delivery!

Look Ma!  No hands!

Do you live in central Columbia?  Think you might like to order some herbal goodies?  If so, you can cut out shipping and fuel costs by requesting free bike delivery by Violet.  She has been safely riding the streets of Columbia since she was in second grade and enjoys the independence of powering her own mode of transportation.  If you would like to take advantage of bike delivery and support a young entrepreneur, make your order directly through email (not the shopping cart) and we will arrange a time for Violet to hand deliver your order.  Bike delivery is FREE, but Violet is hoping to earn tips.

Violet's ready to deliver your order!

Budworms

We’ve had an interesting first growing and wildcrafting season on the homestead. Even though we had record breaking temperatures that sustained for the month of July and encountered more pests than ever before, we managed to double the size of our gardens and established several new varieties of medicinal herbs.

Read more…

Keyhole Garden Bed Experiments

Earlier this spring I posted a how-to for DIY keyhole garden beds: http://www.violetmoonorganics.com/2011/05/no-till-keyhole-garden-bed/ Since then, I have experimented with two new ways to create keyhole beds.  One was to build a round chicken tractor for containing our meat birds who scratched and fertilized the soil in the size and shape of a keyhole bed.  The other was to dump all the grass clippings from this summer in the shape of the bed.  Both of them have worked but each has their drawbacks.

My neighbor wanted to split an order of meat birds so I used the opportunity to experiment with another no-till garden option.  We built the tractor out of PVC pipe and attached chicken wire to it as securely as possible and positioned it exactly where I wanted my next keyhole bed.  We staked it into the ground with re-bar and covered the top and west side of the tractor with tarps to keep the chickens dry and out of the sun.  I continuously added straw bedding and over the course of about 9 weeks they had created a rich garden bed.  The chickens did a great job scratching up grass, weeds, and fertilizing the soil.  However, the bermuda grass survived.   Looks like I will have to pull that out by hand, but since the ground is no longer compacted, it will be relatively easy to pull up.  If your interested in getting rid of a lawn of bermuda grass, check out my post here:  Food Not Lawns.

After removing the chickens and the tractor, I edged in the entire bed to prevent any new weeds and bermuda grass from creeping in along the edges.  Next I’ll pull out the remaining bermuda grass roots and dig in my keyhole path.  If there is still too much bermuda, I’ll cover this bed with newspaper, manure and straw for planting in the spring. This will help smother the roots and make the soil even fluffier for pulling out whatever nasty roots might remain. Otherwise, a fresh layer of straw will work fine.

For the grass clippings experiment I laid out the bed as instructed in my original post, edged it in for the appropriate shape,  and then began spreading out grass clippings.  I just built the bed by dumping fresh clippings from each mowing so it took about 2 months worth of clippings for a good thick layer throughout the bed.  This worked better than I thought.  The clippings smothered all the grass and various weeds except for a very invasive woody vine called winter creeper.  I will have to remove the grass clippings and pull the vast netting of vine out by hand.  And, because grass clippings by themselves are not that nourishing to the soil, I’ll put a layer of manure down after I dig in the keyhole path.

Since both of these beds will be ready in the spring I have doubled my backyard garden space!  Plus, I only have two more keyhole beds to add for a completed mandala garden!

Wow, check us out!

We’re back!   Now that we’re up and running you’ll be hearing lots more out of me about chickens, lessons learned in the garden and handcrafted herbal goodness. What do you think of our new digs?

A Homestead Update: Chicken Coop And Introductions

And now for some introductions!

Houdini, our very sweet Houdan.

GG allin, our Buff Orpington

Gladys, one of our Austrolorps.  She has grown faster than the others.

 

My sweet Lottie Mae perched on the re-bar.  She likes to hang out on my shoulder.

 

A black Silkie Bantam named Eva.  Violet’s favorite.  She is soooo tiny.

 

Our Barred Rock, Miss Fritz and Jade our white Silkie Bantam

 

We finished the chicken coup and the run with the help of our neighbors and friends.  It finally got warm enough the past couple of days to let the girls out for a bit.  They are growing so fast.

Taken during a downpour.  Very happy that we just got the ground tilled for the Three Sisters Garden.

In other news, the rain and saturated soil has meant that I’ve been rushing to get my plants in the ground at any possible dry moment that I’m not at work.  So far we have red peppers, roma tomatoes, basil, cosmos, zinnias, garlic, sweet peas, carrots, lettuce, onions, calendula, agrimony, broccoli, spinach, kale, brussel sprouts, wood betony, some woodland plants, lavender and turnips!

Chicken Coop Progress

Violet painted the main body of the coop.  She had fun but she doesn’t look like it here:

Finished coop pics and official pictorial tour coming soon!

No-Till Keyhole Garden Bed

A keyhole bed is a circle with a path to the middle and widened into a circle at the center of the bed.  Basically, it is a rectangle curved at the middle to bring together the ends.  It is supposed to be space saving, but I just like circles better than sharp edges. The path into the center is shaped like a keyhole so that you can ideally reach all of your garden from the inside path or the outside of the circle without stepping on the soil.

I am creating a series of keyhole beds that will loosely resemble a mandala garden when I’m finished.  I take my time and build only about 1 or 2 keyhole beds a year.   Here’s how I do it:

Hose, stick, tape measure, string and scissors.

Build your keyhole garden you will need the following:

• flexible hose or suitable substitute for laying out bed
• a stick, pipe or pole to place in the center of the circle
• string to tie to the pole
• scissors to cut the string
• tape measure
• shovel
• lots of newspaper or cardboard
• compost or soil (or do the lasagna method and use leaves, straw, compost, etc…)
• water hose
• straw

Decide on the general area…

String tied to pole

Tie your string to the pole and measure a little over 6ft and cut your string.  I tie a loop in mine so that the edge doesn’t fray.

String stretched from center pole to guide placement of the hose

Lay your hose loosely in a circle around the pole so that it is easier to guide into your more precise circle. Now begin stretching the string to the edge and guide your hose into the circle as you walk all the way around.  This is the general shape and placement of your keyhole bed.

Hose guide in place for digging in edges.

Next, I like to dig in my edges in order to prevent vines, weeds or grass from growing into the garden bed.  Plus, this part of my yard is wet and soggy.  Edging in allows for better drainage and raises my bed slightly.  Follow the hose guide and dig in all the way around the bed.

Edges and part of path dug in (pole is still in the middle)

Now dig in a path from the edge to about 1 foot from your center pole.  My path is quite narrow…maybe 1-1.5 feet wide.  I put the soil from the path and the edges into the garden bed and loosen them up a bit so they aren’t too clumpy.

Full path and keyhole dug into center.

Now dig out the circle in the middle.  I would ideally use mulch to cover my path but all I had was straw and it works fine.

Path covered with straw

Next get all of your newspaper or cardboard and your water hose.  Begin laying your newspaper, overlapping and using several layers at once.  Continuously soak the newspaper and the soil in the bed as you go, especially if it’s windy outside!  Eventually, your whole garden bed should be covered in several layers of wet newspaper…

.

whole bed covered in wet newspaper.

Now carefully begin moving your soil building materials onto the newspaper, continuously soaking as you go.  This is important to encourage the worms and other soil creatures to eat all the grass and plant material under the paper layer and eventually come up to the top layer.  I just used compost to cover my newspaper.

keyhole bed with compost

Next I watered it in again and covered with straw to suppress weeds on the top layer and to protect the newspaper while it is breaking down.  I also put up barriers to keep the chickens from scratching it.

Would be easier to see the path if it was mulched!

Chicken Coop

Jamie spent most of the day yesterday starting the chicken coop!  It is a combination of new and recycled materials. Here is what we have so far.

East side with the beginning of nesting boxes.

North side with large opening for a clean-out door.

Chickens!

I’ve been researching breeds for our hens for the past few weeks and have narrowed the decision down to three:  Black Australorp, Barred Plymouth Rock, and Buckeye.  Each of these is an above average layer, cold hardy, docile and friendly, and adaptable to free range and confinement. Further, I can’t stand seeing any of my girls get bullied, so I wanted to make sure that for the most part each type of bird we got would get along in a mixed flock.  Since our girls will get names and end up being backyard pets,  we chose breeds that would enjoy our company and allow my daughter to carry them around and sit on her lap (as she does with my neighbor Mary’s chickens).

Thanks to Mary who blogs at http://columbiaurbanhens.wordpress.com/, I will be ordering our hens through Bourne feed who gets their shipments from http://www.cacklehatchery.com a hatchery in southern Missouri. All the images below are from Cackle Hatchery.

The Buckeye is a somewhat rare breed from Ohio.  Buckeyes are known for being easily handled and friendly, and are very cold hardy. She will grow to be about 6 1/2 pounds and produce about 3-4 eggs a week. I like the idea of supporting hatcheries that carry rare breeds and the Buckeye fits the profile of the kind of hen I would like to have around.  She’s pretty isn’t she!

The Barred Plymouth Rock will mature to about 7 1/2 pounds and is considered a good layer as well as meat bird.  Plymouth Rocks apparently have increased in popularity along with the rise in popularity of backyard chickens in general.  They are considered dependable, calm and adaptable birds.

I am most excited about the Black Australorp hens!  I love the silky black feathers that look iridescent in the sunlight.  These are also considered above average layers with about 5 eggs per week, very calm and docile and cold hardy.  Some folks have reported that these are very broody (sits on the nest to attempt to hatch her eggs), even annoyingly so, but I’ll take the risk.  Gorgeous!

Even though the city of Columbia limits backyard chickens to 6 hens (no roosters), I will likely order 3 of each because of the likelihood that some of them will be sexed wrong.  If not, having a couple extra hens will be fine with me!

Update!  When I called the feed store to make my order they had a minimum of 5 per breed.  After talking with my girl, we decided to go for 5 Buckeyes since they aren’t sexed and we will just get two random bantoms when we pick them up.  The Austrolorps are on back order until the end of May.  We can’t keep roosters in the city, so we can order Austrolorps later in the season to replace what roosters will have to go.